Issues

Campaign themes

Government of the people, by the people and for the people: " You cannot produce quality results from a broken process. Ours is a government of the people. Creating meaningful solutions that are fair and equitable requires diverse representation."

Healthcare: "The Affordable Care Act is a great step toward improving access to health care for more Americans but we need to do far more to reduce the cost of health care and make it available to all of our citizens. We need to negotiate aggressively for lower cost. That is the basis of our successful Medicare program."

Education: "Free market advocates suggest we defund education and reserve it for the wealthy. The reality of course is that privatized education has not achieved the necessary results. Government, business, and educational institutions need to cooperate on matching education standards to the needs of business and industry."

Jobs: "Private industry has clearly demonstrated its unwillingness to invest in long-term growth strategies. Tax payers cannot continue subsidizing obsolete technologies and bailing out bankrupt investment strategies. Rich people need to start paying their own way. Trickle down economics has clearly failed us with corporations moving trillions of dollars out of our economy into offshore resources. We need to recover that money to invest in American business and restoring our infrastructure."

Energy and Conservation: "Our excessive demand for fossil fuels is the number one threat to our environment. Fossil fuel technology is obsolete. Taxpayers should not be spending billions to support corporate profits maintaining obsolete technologies."

Money Management: "The average citizen cannot reasonably invest in or profit from a monetary system that is controlled and manipulated by wealthy interests."

Social Justice: "Our legal system is completely overwhelmed by frivolous prosecution, adversarial family law and frivolous tort proceedings. Our legal process is becoming so exceedingly complex that it excludes a majority of Americans from any form of due process or social justice."

War on Drugs: "There exists no better example of frivolous prosecution than the war on drugs. It is time to end the war. We are not winning and we are suffering enormous casualties. This tax burden is clearly not providing us any relief from this social problem. Those tax dollars should be addressing the social problems that perpetuate alcohol and chemical abuse."

Privacy: " Freedom and liberty cannot survive under a system of government allowed to operate in secrecy and prosecute citizens with simple allegation. Extending the surveillance and intellectual property rights to corporations is really no less of a threat. Citizens need protection form corporate invasion of our privacy."

Immigration: "We are a nation of immigrants, a nation of minorities. Continuing to ignore immigration reform is to deny our heritage. Continuing to discriminate against minorities is to jeopardize our future. We need to naturalize the immigrant population. Let them work. Let them contribute. Securing our borders is akin to building the Great Wall of China. It’s an embarrassment."

Families: "A strong family unit is critical to social stability. Wealth inequality and social welfare policies that aggressively divide families have jeopardized the fundamental family unit. Women and children continue to bear the consequences."

Violence: "We clearly need leadership willing to address the serious levels of violence in this culture. Violence against women continues at intolerable levels and there is a continued unwillingness to recognize that violence is not bounded by gender...Safe schools legislation is intended to address that issue and it is imperative that we promote that initiative. Safe schools legislation is about teaching our young people appropriate coping skills, communication skills, conflict management, anger management and basic relationship skills."

Separation of Church and State: "Sound public policy intended to mitigate social cost and social injustice should be based on sound research and proven models of performance. They must respect the freedoms and dignity of the individual and must not be infringed upon by principles or beliefs of any religion. This should not prohibit communities of faith from active participation in our political process."

Defense: "It is time to let go of our war time economy and start focusing on building peaceful relationships and cooperate with allies. Diplomacy should be managed by the State Department, not the military."

Gun Control: "Responsible gun owners do not oppose reasonable restrictions on the purchase and handling of guns. Promoting the unrestricted use and abuse of guns is simply intolerable. The right to bear arms does not guarantee us a free society. A free society is achieved through citizen participation in assuring government that is representative of the people."